Dired Reference Card
(based on Dired in GNU Emacs 28)
Commands marked with (DX) require dired-x. In some cases I have added a third column with the equivalent function that you can call with M-x.
Entering and Exiting Dired
| run dired | C-x d | dired |
| dired the directory of the file you are editing | C-x C-j (DX) | |
| quit | dired q |
Motion Commands
| move up to previous line | p |
| move down to next line | n |
| move up to previous directory line | < |
| move down to next directory line | > |
| move to next marked file | M-} |
| move to previous marked file | M-{ |
| move up to previous subdirectory | M-C-p |
| move down to next subdirectory | M-C-n |
| move to parent directory | ^ |
| move to first child subdirectory | M-C-d |
Mouse Commands
| visit file or directory | Mouse_Button_2 |
Immediate Actions on Files
| visit current file | f | |
| view current file | v | |
| visit current file in other window | o | |
| create a new subdirectory | + | dired-create-directory |
| compare file at point with the one at mark | = |
Marking and Unmarking Files
| mark a file or subdirectory for later commands | m |
| unmark a file or all files of a subdirectory | u |
| unmark all marked files in a buffer | M-delete |
| mark files with a given extension | * . |
| mark all directories | * / |
| mark all symlinks | * @ |
| mark all executables | * * |
| invert marking | t |
| mark all files in the current subdir | * s |
| mark file names matching a regular expression | * % |
| change the marks to a different character | * c |
| mark files for which Elisp expression returns t | * ( (DX) |
Modifying the Dired Buffer
| insert a subdirectory into this buffer | i |
| remove marked files from the listing | k |
| remove a subdir listing | C-u k |
| re-read all directories (retains all marks) | g |
| toggle sorting of current subdir by name/date | s |
| edit ls switches | C-u s |
| recover marks, hidden lines, and such (undo) | C-_ |
| hide all subdirectories | M-$ |
| hide or unhide subdirectory | $ |
Commands on Files Marked or Specified by the Prefix
| copy file(s) | C |
| rename a file or move files to another directory | R |
| change ownership of file(s) | O |
| change the group of the file(s) | G |
| change mode of file(s) | M |
| print file(s) | P |
| convert filename(s) to lower case | % l |
| convert filename(s) to upper case | % u |
| delete marked (as opposed to flagged) file(s) | D |
| compress or uncompress file(s) | Z |
| run info on file | I (DX) |
| make symbolic link(s) | S |
| make relative symbolic link(s) | Y |
| make hard link(s) | H |
| search files for a regular expression | A |
| regexp query replace on marked files | Q |
| byte-compile file(s) | B |
| load file(s) | L |
| shell command on file(s) | ! |
| asynchronous shell command on file(s) | & |
Flagging Files for Deletion Unmark commands remove delete flags
| flag file for deletion | d |
| flag all backup files (file names ending in ˜) | ~ |
| flag all auto-save files | # |
| flag various intermediate files | % & |
| flag numeric backups (ending in .˜1˜, .˜2˜, etc.) | . |
| execute the deletions requested (flagged files) | x |
| flag files matching a regular expression | % d |
Regular Expression Commands
| mark filenames matching a regular expression | % m |
| copy marked files by regexp | % C |
| rename marked files by regexp | % R |
| hardlink | % H |
| symlink | % S |
| symlink, with relative paths | % Y |
| mark for deletion | % d |
Dired and Find
| dired file(s) whose name matches a pattern | M-x find-name-dired |
| dired file(s) that contain pattern | M-x find-grep-dired |
| dired file(s) based on find output | M-x find-dired |
Getting Help
| dired help | h |
| dired summary (short help) and error log | ? |
Copyright c 2022 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
For GNU Emacs version 28.
Originally written May 2000 by Evgeny Roubinchtein, using refcard layout designed by Stephen Gildea.
Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3 or later.
Adapted from the Dired reference card, believed to be accurate as of 2023-07-25_23:49:38.
Table created in Emacs with Org Mode and Love.
You’re welcome.